I’ve often wondered just what percentage of Confederate veterans actually belonged to organizations such as the U.C.V. More importantly, just how many did not… and why?

I know there were some vets who didn’t think much of reunions with their former adversaries (though I cannot recall, at this time, in what sources I’ve seen this mentioned). I also know that the mandatory endorsement of pension applications by local U.C.V. camps (at least in Virginia) occurred without the applying vet being a member of the organization. It would seem like a perfect opportunity to join, but from what I’ve seen, it appears that a good number refrained from going that extra step. So, I’m left with the idea that those in the organizations actually were small by comparison with the greater representation remaining out of the ranks. If they were so concerned (as several seem to suggest these days) with the preservation of the legacy of the “Lost Cause”, why weren’t more of them members? Was it because they felt the past would be best if left to the past? It was part of their lives… their memories, but had most of them moved on? How many today, speak in a manner very contradictory to how their Confederate ancestors represented themselves. ..or, more importantly, how they did not represent themselves in organizations and/or events?

I know from a roster published in 1903 (or thereabouts) on the unveiling of the sentinel statue on the courthouse lawn (Lexington, MS) that my great grandfather belonged to the UCV, one of more than a hundred men in the county who did. How active he was, I have no idea.

He was a circuit-riding Methodist minister and may not have had a lot of time, though one family story is that he often went downstate to Biloxi to visit old 13th MS comrades living in Jeff Davis’s old home which was turned into a vets home after Davis’s death.

One thing to consider is the huge number of veteran amputees who had more than memories of the war. Great grandfather lost a leg in the Wilderness, so he, like the rest of them, had a daily reminder of the past and didn’t need the UCV to keep him in touch with it—whatever he thought about it.

I am still digging on my CW ancestor there was a UCV camp in the County but I have not got home to dig anymore into it. Online research has drilled several dry wells. I believe like most men who fight they just want to go home and get on with life.